Eliminating greenhouse gas emissions is an inevitable task. We already have suffered the consequences of these gases: the increase in the planet’s average temperature, for example, is one of the most direct impacts. This melts ice caps and raises sea level. In the very near future, the consequences could become even serious. But did you know that it is possible to calculate the number of trees that you need to plant to reduce the effects from your daily emissions of carbon gas into the air? And that you can invest in the planting of these trees?

 

The Odebrecht Foundation, in partnership with the  Earth Conservation Organization (OCT), one of the institutions supporting the Sustainable Integrated Development and Growth Program (PDCIS), maintains the Pratigi Carbon Neutral Program. The program, which was created in 2012 to promote environmental education, enables individuals and organizations to calculate how much carbon gas they emit in one year and to neutralize them. OCT then plants the trees to restore headwaters in the Environmental Protection Area (APA) located in Pratigi, in the Lowlands of Southern Bahia. You also can compensate the toxic gas emissions generated by events. Want to know how it works? Click here (the system is only available in Portuguese)*. 

 

The first farmer to benefit from the program, Jovan Nascimento says that he was not obtaining good productivity on his land, which is located in Juliana, a community in the municipality of Piraí do Norte. Then, in 2012, he received support for the restoration of his headwater. “It was hard at the beginning,” he remembers. He was suspicious, because he did not understand what that change would mean for his property. With orientations from the OCT technicians, today his headwater has become a postcard attraction in the region. “It rare for a car to drive by without someone pausing to take a look,” he says. With the restoration work, 2,500 trees were planted that represent a forest formed by tree species native to the Atlantic Forest, such as jacaranda, inga and sucupira trees.

 

In addition to restoring headwaters and acting as a citizen concerned with the future, the Pratigi Carbon Neutral Program remunerates and values family farmers, who own properties on which trees planting was conducted under the Environmental Services Payment Program (PSA), an initiative that offers guidelines and financial support for the integrated planning of properties supported by the Pratigi Carbon Neutral Program.